Tag Archives: Richmond

Richmond – Plan for greener new developments approved

1 June 2020: A newly updated sustainability checklist that aims to help developers make new developments as green as possible has been approved by Richmond Council. The Sustainable Construction Checklist Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) is an update to the existing SPD, which was last revised in 2016. It gives housebuilders and those developing non-residential spaces a clear steer on what is expected of them to reduce the environmental impact of their developments, regardless of whether their projects are new builds, conversions or extensions. Full details set out on press release here.

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40 ESCO deals signed through RE:FIT programme

June 2014: A response by the Mayor to a question this month provides details that, of the 125 public sector organisations working with the RE:FIT programme, 40 have so far signed energy service deals through the GLA’s RE:FIT procurement framework.  Local authorities signed up to RE:FIT include Harrow, Ealing, Sutton, Enfield, Merton and Camden. A full list of the 40 organisation is provided here (though, confusingly, a few organisations are mentioned more than once – so not it’s not clear if the list is less than 40 – or these organisations have signed more than one deal with an ESCO partner…?).

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Energy efficiency programme for London’s ‘Cultural & Heritage’ sector

June 2014: The Mayor’s non-domestic energy efficiency programme, RE:FIT, recently held an event focused on improving the energy performance London’s Cultural & Heritage buildings. Presentations were provided by RE:FIT participants the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Millfield Theatre, who undertook their RE:FIT project through the London Borough of Enfield. Details of the event can be read here – and an article on green improvements made at the Lyric Hammersmith theatre, who plan to work with the RE:FIT programme shortly, can be see here.

Seperately, the always innovative Arcola Theatre was profiled as a case study in the government’s recent solar energy strategy for their work on using solar PV together with energy storage technology (see page 48 of the strategy document here).

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London Home Energy Efficiency programme “significantly delayed”

December 2013: An oral evidence session between officials and the London Assembly Budget & Performance Committee (see earlier post for details) highlighted the slow progress of the Mayor’s domestic energy efficiency retrofit programme RE:NEW. A new paper (06a(v)) presented to the 18th December meeting of the London Assembly Budget Monitoring Sub-Committee provides some data helping illustrate the extent of the shortfall.

The current forecast for 13/14 (right hand chart) shows that RE:NEW is predicted to just miss the project target – however, the performance level to date indicated shows that even this reduced level of delivery is still some way off.  The oral evidence session (referred to above) in fact suggests that only 3% of the 13/14 target has as yet been achieved (996 tonnes of CO2 compared to a target of 29,416 earlier post). Paper 06a(v) provides some explanation for the slow progress:

  • Delivery  of  the  RE:NEW  Phase  II  carbon targets  is  significantly  delayed  and  contractors  will  miss  their  obligations.   This  is  largely  due  to  delays  in  availability  of  ECO  (government  subsidy). Delivery  of  the  carbon  savings  from  the  interim  Support  Team  has  exceeded  targets  for  quarter  two
  • Performance  payments  have  been  withheld  from  contractors  and  the  funding  is  being  reallocated  to  the  RE:NEW  Support  Team  in  order  to  reduce  the  shortfall  in  performance. However, this  is not sufficient  to  completely  mitigate  the  lower  savings  from  RE:NEW Phase  II  and  this,  combined  with  a  delay  in  confirmation  from  the  European  Investment  Bank  for  ELENA  funding  prior  to  commencing  procurement  of  the  full  RE:NEW  Support  Team,  means  its  is  forecast  75  per cent  of  2013/14  carbon  targets  will  be  achieved.
  • The  targets  for  future  years  have  been  reviewed  and  updated  in  light  of  the  above  and  as  planned.   They  have  been  reduced  for  2014/15  and  2015/16,  but  an  additional  year  of  delivery  (2016/17)  has  been  added,  which  leads  to  an  increase  in  carbon  savings  overall – albeit  over  a  longer  period.

The paper goes on to report latest CO2 saving estimates of two further Mayor’s climate change projects – RE:FIT (the public sector building retrofit project) and the London decentralised energy programme. The latter states that “Significant progress has been made on several projects, particularly with regards the Lea Valley Heat Network, Lakeside Energy from Waste, Greenwich Power Station and the Kew Gardens Decentralised Energy scheme.

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Green Deal & ECO in London – six months in

September 2013: Following the publication of the first quarterly set of detailed Green Deal and ECO (Energy Company Obligation) data back in July (details of which are outlined in the following post here) DECC has now published the much anticipated second quarter’s data set on 19 September 2013 (press release here).

In contrast to the regular monthly DECC datasets, the quarterly data provides a regional breakdown of  i.Green Deal assessments undertaken ii. ECO measures installed and data on iii. Green Deal cashback vouchers offered, allowing some idea of how the Government’s new energy efficiency regime is progressing in London.

Continue reading…

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Waltham Forest continues to lead on PV

January 2013: DECC have released their latest quarterly dataset of “Sub-regional statistics show [ing] the number of installations and total installed capacity by technology type at the end the latest quarter that have been confirmed on the Central FIT Register (CFR)”. [DECC weblink;  Excel file] The data provides a useful breakdown of installations under the Feed in Tariff (FIT) programme by ‘local authorities’ and also ‘parliamentary constituency’. The top 10  London boroughs by total installs of PV (photovoltaic) installations under the FITs programme (which started in April 2010) is provided below.

Waltham Forest 861
Bromley 730
Croydon 577
Havering 491
Bexley 404
Richmond upon Thames 397
Barnet 394
Ealing 383
Redbridge 336
Lewisham 315

Points to note:

  • Waltham Forest continues to be the local authority with the most number of total PV installs
  • By comparing the latest dataset to the previous October 2012 dataset, it can also be seen that Waltham Forest had the highest number of PV installs over the past quarter (136) – 3-4 times as much as the next nearest boroughs (Bromley (49), Croydon (33) and Havering (32)
  • Over the last three quarters London has seen a small drop in its percentage of total PV installs as a proportion of the UK total – from 2.79% to 2.76%
  • Further comparison of PVs in London compared to other UK regions can be seen here.
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London’s first hydroelectric turbine

November 2012: The National Trust started London’s first ever Archimedes Screw hydroelectric turbine at Morden Hall Park in south west London  sited on the river Wandle. Local MP for Kingston and Surbiton, Ed Davey – who is handily also the Secretary of State at DECC – was in attendance at the launch event. The National Trust’s news release adds that the “Archimedes Screw turbine will generate enough electricity to power the Park’s new award-winning visitor centre.  By acting like a modern waterwheel it will harness the power of the river to generate electricity.  It is estimated that it will generate 59,000 kWh a year – enough for about 16 average households.” The 8.5kWe turbine had a high capital cost – reported at £350,000  fully installed – and much debate about how this cost should be viewed is presented on the following Guardian article (ie high capital cost, but very low ongoing costs for the generator over its life span).

Further details on the project are posted on the Morden Hall Park blog and information on the Archimedes Screw itself on the website of the technology provider for this installation, Halliday’s Hydropower.

A further hydropower project, also using an Archimedes Screw, is planned in London at Teddington Weir, further information for which is at project website  Ham Hydro (and in an earlier post here).

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Top 20 Cities with Billions at Risk from Climate Change

July 2012:  With the weather we’re currently experiencing, it’s interesting to read this Bloomberg article setting out that “More than 130 port cities around the world are at increasing risk from severe storm-surge flooding, damage from high storm winds, rising and warming global seas and local land subsidence. Poorly planned development often puts more people in vulnerable areas, too, increasing risk. About $3 trillion of assets are at risk today, a tally on track to reach $35 trillion by 2070, according to an ongoing study by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.” Click through the slides to see the 20 port cities most vulnerable to climate extremes – which doesn’t fortunately include London.

London is however likely to face increased challenges associated with flooding – as set out in chapter 3 of the Mayor’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy which highlights that:

  • Nearly 15 per cent of London lies on the former flood plains of London’s rivers”
  • A significant proportion of London lies within the Thames tidal floodplain and without the protection afforded by the tidal flood defences, much of that area would flood twice a day, everyday on each high tide
  • The last tidal flood in London was in 1928, when 14 people drowned in Pimlico. In 1953, London narrowly escaped damage whena tidal surge inundated large parts of Kent and Essex, killing over 300 people. This resulted in the construction of the current Thames tidal defences, an integrated system comprising the Thames Barrier, 185 miles of floodwalls, 35 major gates and over 400 minor gates.
  • The Thames Barrier has been operational since 1982 and has been closed over 100 times to protect London from flooding

The Museum of London’s 2011 ‘Postcards from the Future’ exhibition imagined what London might look like as a result of a number of future stress factors, including climate change. The 14 striking images, which include wind turbines in Piccadilly Circus, a nuclear power station in Kew Gardens and palm oil cultivation in Hyde Park, can be viewed here.

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Ham Hydro Update

March 2012: A quick update on the community-led Ham Hydro renewable energy project which has been mentioned in some earlier posts – the hydropower scheme involves the installation of “3 Archimedean screw turbines on Teddington Weir to generate approximately 1,900 MWh per annum – enough to power 600 homes”. A formal planning application to Richmond Council was submitted a few months ago, and the full documentation of the scheme’s submission can be viewed on Richmond Council’s planning website here.

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Evaluating RE:CONNECT

February 2012: Paper presented at the most recent GLA Investment and Performance Board evaluating the progress of the Mayor’s RE:CONNECT programme which established 10 ‘Low Carbon Zones’ across London.

The ten zones are in: Barking Town Centre (LBBD), Muswell Hill (Haringey),Archway (Islington), Brixton (Lambeth), Lewisham Town Centre (Lewisham), WandleValley (Merton), Ham & Petersham (Richmond), Peckham (Southwark), Hackbridge(Sutton), Queens Park (Westminster). The largest zone is in Archway with around 3,000 buildings; the smallest is in Hackbridge with around 300 buildings.

The programme is essentially a series of local scale demonstration projects that seek to deliver a 20% CO2 saving across the buildingsin a neighbourhood over a three year period (September 2009 – September 2012) and to provide an understanding of the factors that are required to deliver high coverage of energy efficiency measures and more efficient energy usage at a local scale.

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The Hydrograph

January 2012: Community-led renewable energy scheme in Richmond, Ham Hydro, has recently published its first newsletter providing an update on their project, which involves the installation of hydro power turbines on the River Thames at Teddington Weir. Down The Hydrograph at www.hamhydro.org. Further information is available on the Ham Hydro energyshare webpage.

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London schemes through to the next round of ‘energyshare’

12 August 2011: British Gas and River Cottage’s energyshare initiative have today announced the ‘longlist’ of 100 community renewable energy projects bidding for support from the initial £500,000 energyshare fund. Only seven London schemes are in this list of 100 projects and links to their project descriptions can be found below:

Ham Hydro – the installation of hydro power turbines on the River Thames at Teddington Weir
PETRA – green refurbishment of tower blocks to best practice standards of energy and water efficiency and generate renewable energy
SPACE_Solar – the installation of a large solar array on a new artist studio building in Peckham
All Souls Solar – installation of a solar array on All Souls Church in St Margarets, Isleworth
Glyndon Community – a scheme to make part of Plumstead-based Glyndon community centre’s energy consumpution come from renewable sources
Hackney City Farm
Hyde Farm Climate Action Network – Supporting ongoing energy saving projects on the Hyde Farm estate in Balham.

Further funding of £2m will be supplied for future bidding rounds by British Gas – much more information on energyshare can be found on their website.

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